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How to Build a Better Mouse Trap

7 February, 2012 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Imagine the situation.  You run a pizza store and you are losing money.  Your raw material costs are far more than they should be.  You jump to the most obvious conclusion: Somebody must be stealing the cheese.  (Either that or you have king sized mice wondering about). After spending a lot of money on an […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: fast food, problem solving, proportionality

Success is All About Being World Class at the Basics

3 December, 2011 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Back to basics

Imagine you run a burger van.  What do you need to do to make sure it is a success?  How will you get customers to keep coming back?  If you grab a pen and paper and start to write a list it will probably look a little like this: Stall must look spotless Burgers must […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: complexity, fast food, focus, simplicity

All You Will Ever Need to Know About Analysis

7 May, 2011 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Improving performance isn’t very difficult, it is just about fixing things that don’t work too well.  The problem is trying to work out which bit to fix, what is important, where will you get the most bang for your buck.   It is easy to fall into a world of analysis paralysis, pain and despair. You […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: continuous improvement, data presentation, fast food, measurement, monitoring, process control, service improvement

Max your Meal

25 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Many if not most business processes have two parts to them. First make a decision: – Should I hire this person? – Is this an acceptable payment? – Can I give this employee access to the system? Second carry out the actions: – Send an offer letter. – Reject the payment. – Provide a password. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, customer requirements, error proofing, fast food, good service

Raw Fish

23 January, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Have you ever visited Yo Suhi?  If you haven’t have a look at the video. The restaurant is a marvel in terms of giving customers what they want without any fuss.  You take the food that you want off the conveyor belt.  The chefs just keep it topped up.  If you want service there is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, fast food, video, Yo Sushi

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